February Recap and March Goals

My apologies for not getting this post out last week, but I got behind and had to find some room in my schedule, which meant Eat Laugh Purr had a mini-hiatus. Normally, I’d feel guilty and morph into a Drama Queen, but not this time. The world kept chugging along, and I’m here today to share with you how my goals went in February and my plans for March.

How Did I Do in February?

Not so great and I”m really happy about it. You read that correctly: I didn’t do well against my goals and I’m happy. Confused? Let’s break it down a bit more.

Now you’re likely wondering why I’m so happy when so many goals were unsuccessful. Although I didn’t hit my goals, something better happened: I didn’t quit and learned an important lesson that will help me succeed ongoing. And that is a big win for me.

Not Giving Up in the Face of Failure

I realized fairly quickly that I wasn’t going to hit #1 and #3 (more on that in a bit) and normally that would have led me to give-up and let out a sigh of relief. I’m off the hook for another year! Not this time. Instead, I made adjustments and kept moving towards my get healthy goal.

For example, I had every intention of starting swimming in February. However, my current swimsuit is quite old and the elasticity in my swimsuit straps was very iffy. Since I wanted to swim and not skinny dip, I decided to buy a cheap, new suit. What I didn’t expect was how badly that would freak me out, seeing my cellulite under harsh and unforgiving store lights. It sent me scurrying home and into bed.

Fortunately, I didn’t smother my emotions with “woe me” or carbs but allowed myself to feel all those varying emotions — shame, frustration, sadness, embarrassment and also hope, faith and determination. I accepted how I felt and thought what can I do in place of swimming right now? So I made a point to take a daily walk to run errands, dance to my favorite songs and chase after Max, which he loved.

Lesson Learned: Be Prepared to Succeed

When I set my February goals, I chose a few, easy but impactful goals and had every intention of achieving each of them. So what happened? I didn’t set myself up to succeed by having the necessary tools in place to do so.

For example, years ago I read an article where a sanitation worker said what they most frequently find in port-a-potties, beyond human waste, is undigested vitamins, which is caused by not drinking enough water to dissolve them and cheap vitamins. Thus, I wanted to do some research to make sure I chose the best vitamin that fit my budget (and why increasing water intake was also a goal). This was a good decision; however, I should have done the research and purchased the vitamins prior to setting the goal. I got busy and keep putting off doing the research, which meant no vitamins purchased and no goal achievement.

Life is busy and it’s so easy to push even important things, like buying vitamins or a swimsuit, to the next day and then the next day. Soon a month is gone and you haven’t accomplished anything, even though you had the best intentions. Lesson learned.

March Goals: Rinse and Repeat

I am grateful for my past month’s goal failings because what they taught me will ultimately help me achieve my goals ongoing. Thus, I’m keeping things simple for March and doing a repeat of February goals. Old Tanya would have doubled her goals to make-up for last month’s failures. New Tanya is smart enough to know better. The lone addition is to plan ahead for next month’s goals and make sure I have whatever resources are needed in place by April 1, so I can hit the ground running versus being an April Fool.

Tanya

P.S. The other reason for my happiness in the face of goal failure is that my clothes are looser. So even though I didn’t achieve my stated goals, but my overall goal of getting healthy became a little more real.

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By day, Tanya helps her clients create meaningful connections with their target audience through her modern and elegant website designs. Utilizing her passion for the written word, she crafts entertaining and informative articles on finance, food and health and beauty as a freelance writer. By night, she is a blogger, consumer of too much TV and an overindulgent Cat Mama to Max. To be fair, she spoils Max 24/7.

Comments

Glad to hear that not achieving last month’s goals are not derailing you! I have a hard time for some reason believing the sanitations worker’s thing about vitamins though! lol! I think keeping goals pretty simple each month can help make them more attainable. Good luck!

Honestly, I’m a bit surprised because normally it would be an excuse to throw myself a pity party and quit. I am glad, though, that I didn’t because I am truly tired of my lack of goal achievement. And that lack of success falls squarely on my shoulders and I know it.

It was strange because my normal go-to response would be to give up and be relieved. But I didn’t do any of those things, nor did I beat myself up. Instead, it was such a huge a-ha for me on how I failed to achieve such simple goals because I didn’t set myself up to succeed by having the ready to go. Knowing this makes a huge difference as I set goals ongoing. Goals are great but if you don’t have want you need to take action, they aren’t very meaningful.

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Once Upon a Time ...
A girl adopted a feline (or vice versa), and they soon discovered their shared love of food and fun made them the purrfect duo. Tanya loves Max and flip-flops. Max loves his Mama and birdies. He not so secretly hopes to have his very own pet birdie named Yum Yum some day. Mama not so secretly hopes that day never happens.